There
are many books about the epochal Columbian Exposition, the cultural,
commercial, and technological watershed whose wonders awed the 28
million visitors who ambled through “The White City” between
May and October of 1893. But one book arguably contains more
detail than most others: Chaim M. Rosenberg’s America at
the Fair: Chicago’s 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition

There
are many books about the epochal Columbian Exposition, the cultural,
commercial, and technological watershed whose wonders awed the 28
million visitors who ambled through “The White City” between
May and October of 1893. But one book arguably contains more
detail than most others: Chaim M. Rosenberg’s America at
the Fair: Chicago’s 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition.

For
instance, I already knew that the Columbian Exposition
was the first world’s “electric” fair and that evening
ticket-holders were thrilled by dazzling displays of electric
lights. But until reading “America at the
Fair,” I didn’t realize that Edison’s General
Electric Company and the Westinghouse Electric Company had
been involved in a “War of the Currents” since
1883 and that Westinghouse gained not only the right to
light up the Chicago fair but that it also won
the “best site” award in the Electricity Building.

Most
books which discuss the Fair’s Women’s Pavilion also
mention that architect Sophie Hayden was commissioned to design
the building. But, to my knowledge, none
but Rosenberg’s relates that because of
discouragements suffered relative to her association with the Fair
(including being paid significantly less than her male counterparts)
Ms. Hayden suffered a breakdown and never designed
another building.

Perhaps,
some readers will find that Rosenberg provides too much
detail at times. For instance, some might not care that
the New York Life Insurance Company, one of the many insurers of the
Fair in case of fire, had assets of 137 million and 224,000
policies. While it cannot be denied
that Rosenberg obviously adores numbers and facts, he
generally makes those things work for him -- his
detailed-filled descriptions can be very illuminating, as seen
in the following description of Chicago’s 1892 thoroughfares,
found in one of Rosenberg’s pre-Fair chapters, “From
Village to Metropolis”:

“Town
planners made sure that Chicago had its grand
boulevards. Michigan Avenue and Oakwood
Boulevard were each 100 feet wide. Drexel, Garfield and
Western Boulevards were 200 feet wide, while Douglas, Central
and Humboldt Boulevards were each 250 feet in width. State
Street was Chicago’s main shopping street, built to
resemble Regent Street in London. Madison
Street was Chicago’s great east to west thoroughfare.
The manufacturing district was located south of Lake Street and
east of Halsted Street. Immigrants, factories, and
stockyards filled this area of the city.”

But
the book’s main thrust, obviously, is the Fair itself and Rosenberg
devotes one chapter to each of the following Fair
buildings: manufacturers and liberal arts, electricity, agriculture,
transportation, machinery, one chapter combining the
“freestanding pavilions,” and one which lists the nations who
took part in the Fair and a detailed description of their displays.
He also combines the World Congress of Ideas and the Midway
Plaisance into one chapter entitled “Lofty Thoughts and Low Down
Fun.”

Scattered
generously throughout the book are black and white photographs,
sketches, and advertisements which portray different
aspects of the Fair, and, at the center of the book is an
absolute treasure: 31 pages of facsimile lithograph trading cards in
full color --advertising everything from kerosene lanterns and
kitchen utensils to corsets and chocolate -- which were
distributed during the Fair as advertisements.

Very
occasionally, one wishes that the book’s plethora of
facts were better organized. For instance, when
mentioning how Britain came to be one of the “exhibiting
nations,” Rosenberg relates that it was Robert Todd
Lincoln, US ambassador to Britain and son of
the late President, who formally invited Britain to the
Fair, via Britain’s Prime Minister. Rosenberg then goes
on to describe, in a short paragraph, the ambassador’s lineage
and what became of him. It is highly interesting but more than
slightly diverting and would have been better placed in a
sidebar rather than in the text.But
detail-lovers, especially those hungry for information about an
event at once as epochal and far removed from
the present as the Columbian Exposition, will be thankful for
the pictorial details, photographic and otherwise, found in
America at the Fair: Chicago’s 1893 World’s
Columbian Exposition.